This I Believe

“The world is going to end in 2012 and this time it won’t be water,” the monotone voice sighed through the dry air of my living room. This reality was revealed to me one lazy afternoon about a year ago as I sat stretched out across the living room couch, while educational programming blared our impending doom at the bare face of my living room walls. The belief of our future end, exposed to my mind that day, would be one I would hold close for many years to come.

My ears pricked up as my brain practiced selective hearing and I only registered the words “end” ,“world”, and “2012”. I gazed drowsily at the screen, my head bent at a forty-five degree angle, not believing the source of all answers: The Discovery Channel. As I gaped at the shocking images passing on the screen like a slideshow I realized the significance of this announcement. I wouldn’t have to plan my life out any further than that year. All the incessant mutterings of wishes and dreams would no longer become reality in such a modest time. I could relax and try to enjoy the time I had left. I bit my lip and turned away to stare at the walls of my living room. The world was going to end in five more years; there wasn’t much time left.

Images of volcanoes vomiting lava, comets lighting the Earth in flames, and gigantic waves of earthquakes flew passed my mind as the fatal words repeated in my head, “This time He will use fire.” The disorganized blackness of my mind remembered the words of God, “never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth” (Gen 9: 8-17). My life seemed to be a piece of the puzzle that would fall into place on 2012 and at that moment I realized I didn’t care about our end. The television screeched in disapproval, as I knew that though humanity would end life would continue. No matter what was said about goals and truth and dreams, I knew it was all an illusion. God keeping his centuries promise would still destroy humanity, but life on Earth would go on.

The world’s fate buzzed on from the depths of my television and for an hour I was astounded by magnificent blends of obliteration as they were combined together to form our final days. The forces of good would finally battle evil, but whatever the outcome I knew that life would continue even if humanity didn’t. To this day I embrace the belief that the world will end on the year of 2012. My mind roared with the proof of our fate that day a year ago, proof from the Mayans, proof from the Discovery Channel, and proof from the never-ending train of thoughts that flowed through my head as I knew all I could do was wait and count the years, weeks, days, hours, minutes, seconds that would pass until 2012 arrives.

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Top 100 Essays USB Drive

This USB drive contains 100 of the top This I Believe audio broadcasts of the last ten years, plus some favorites from Edward R. Murrow's radio series of the 1950s. It's perfect for personal or classroom use! Click here to learn more.

This week’s essay

Growing up in the former Yugoslavia, lawyer Djenita Pasic enjoyed the peace of her religiously diverse country. But after the fall of communism and the outbreak of the Bosnian War, Pasic was forced to reevaluate her ideas about religion and tolerance. Click here to read her essay.